Adaptation of crops to weedy environment

I used to wonder how some of the rice plants on the road side comes up so well and produce good yield. Similarly had seen pumpkin plants which was not planted by anyone giving many pumpkins. While thinking about this felt that these plants germinate at the first rain along with other weeds and they fight for their survival and establishes well. This is different from crops which we plant, since in this case, timings will be chosen by us when to germinate and in lot of case it will be using artificial irrigation. Similarly there is no use of cutting weeds and then sowing crops, since weeds already has their root system established and they come back strongly. If we till the land and then put seeds then weeds get the vigor.

When I clear the field with all the weeds and then transplant rice, weeds take over the crops. But if we introduce the crop seeds at the summer and these seeds germinate along with weeds, definitely the crops will adapt to this environment and will try to fight with weeds and win. If the seeds from this type of environment is used again and again there is good chance of crops gets established well.

In farms where there is artificial irrigation is provided, natural farming is difficult. In my rice fields, I used to irrigate crops and weeds establish in all conditions and hence crops find it difficult to establish later.Typically in summer all weeds die and if crops are established with first rain, then there is good chance of establishing a crop. Probably after establishing crops, artificial irrigation to some extend may be fine.

Fukuoka san knew all these well and established crops before the weeds take over..Knowing the timings of weeds and meeting the timings is very very important in natural farming.